Tom Glavine (91.9 percent) got more Hall votes than Frank Thomas (83.7). Why? Thomas ranks 14th all-time in OPS; everyone above him either retired at least 45 years ago or is rumored to have taken steroids. And being a DH never helped Thomas; he hit .337 as a first baseman and .275 as a DH. Glavine ranks No. 28 in pitching Wins Above Replacement. That's four spots behind Mike Mussina and 17 behind Bert Blyleven, who waited 15 years to get in.

WAR isn't perfect, but Blyleven was better than Glavine. He even compared with Maddux in several ways. Blyleven threw almost twice as many shutouts (60 to 35), had more strikeouts, twice as many World Series wins, a better postseason record (5-1, 2.47 ERA vs. 11-14, 3.27 for Maddux) and a slightly better road ERA (which eliminates home-park bias).

None unanimous

It's silly that there has never been a unanimous baseball Hall of Famer, but it's also no slight. Because baseball existed for 68 years before the first five-man class was inducted, standards were originally incredibly high. Babe Ruth finished third in that original vote. In 1953, Joe DiMaggio got 44 percent of the vote and needed three tries to get in. Some voters don't want to treat Frank Thomas, etc., as greater than DiMaggio. That's flawed logic, but not an insult. Greg Maddux didn't break Tom Seaver's record for highest vote total. That's OK; Seaver is one of the six or seven pitchers in baseball history greater than Maddux.

Balls and strikes

Most Hall of Fame stories mentioned Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine were given infamously generous strike zones. I did some research and found several fascinating studies using PITCHf/x data (many by Mike Fast). Left-handed batters get a de facto strike zone 2.4 inches further outside than a right-hander; the strike zone expands late in games; slow fastballs and curveballs are given expanded zones, while 95 mph-plus fastballs get squeezed; pitchers get wider strike zones at home and in the National League. All those factors help explain the infamous Eric Gregg/Livan Hernandez 1997 NLCS game (the Braves started six left-handed batters).